AustLit

A father tells his son his brush with death was due not to the grip but to the collection of cures - internal and external - he took together. (PB)

A sturdy servant repulses the new minister in mistake for a hawker. (PB)

New Year's Eve 1895 and a day's visit to her mother separates a new wife and her husband for the first time. He has made a New Year's Resolution to give up cigars but is weakened by a bachelor friend and 25 cigars inside a false book cover given him by his wife. He learns a lesson when he gives in to temptation [title of the false book, Charles Reade's 'A Terrible Temptation'] lights a cigar and it explodes. (PB)

Romance among the ladies of Toorak. An old French fortune-teller in Melbourne predicts a widow's romance with a certain gentleman - but the proddings of a cruel friend and a bribe on the gentleman's part persuade his true love to visit the seer and to learn of his affection. A happy marriage follows and his trickery is finally revealed. (PB)

A mother lovingly reforms her wayward son on her deathbed. Sentimental pathos. (PB)

New Year's Eve 1892 and a colliery owner refuses to allow his daughter to marry her suitor, a dragoons lieutenant, and reduces his miners' wages by 25 percent. A three month strike and an attempt to burn his house which is averted by the lieutenant and his men succeed in changing the old man's mind on both issues. (PB)

A mother frightens her nurse-girl with a tale of a burglar just as she heard her frighten her child with a tale of a savage bear. (PB)

A cabman's temptation to keep £100 he finds in his cab causes a week's delay in returning it - in that time the loser's husband dies of hunger and dies of consumption as the cabby seeks to return it. (PB)

A gentleman diverts himself with the heart of a simple country girl just entering society - and leaves her when the woman he has long loved hopelessly is made a widow. When he returns from a tour of Europe with his new wife he sees the girl at the theatre - now a cynical reckless society woman married to an old rich husband. (PB)

A doctor newly married and needing to build up a practice 'cures' a rich spinster's dog by replacing it with an identical dog from another suburb. He wins her thanks, her custom, and her high recommendation which soon builds him a lucrative practice. Light social satire. (PB)

A 'jolly lot of travelling men' refrain from disturbing a friend's sleep when they discover he is dreaming of his mother. (PB)

Quasi-Shakespearian exemplary fairy tale. A Christmas gathering in a Melbourne society household is visited by fairies who show them their failings in charity to the poor and care for their families and the impracticality of social pretension. Suggests concern for sufferings of others should be practically applied in their own homes. Includes a bachelor and spinster and suggests they should give up their selfishness and marry. The poor are depicted thus: homeless children, a poor governess; a Melbourne 'sweated' family; a fatherless family; and the Children's hospital. The women's/mothers' sins are: denying the household food and blankets etc to keep up social appearances; over-indulging children; giving short pay to governesses; over-spending on clothing; and neglect of children in the name of charity. (PB)

Romance begun through the misdelivery of Christmas presents: a lady's cap and shoes to a gentleman; his cigars, driving gloves and pomade to the lady. (PB)

Charmingly erratic narrative of a New Year's Day picnic in the Otway Ranges by a group of Melbourne holiday-makers at Lorne, chaperoned by the narrator and his match-making wife. A description of Australian picnics in general, the scenic trip to the picnic spot, a bellbird and an encounter with a snake preface an account of the brave defence of an isolated New Zealand homestead during the Maori Wars by one of the picnickers, an ex-army officer from South Africa. Concludes with the various pairings promoted by the day - and plans for another holiday. (PB)

Adventures of a poor young Belgian peasant woman journeying with her baby to Brussels to be reunited with her husband. The weather is very cold and she misses her coach but is determined to walk there in company with a pedler taking his savings there to retire. They are caught in a snowstorm and take shelter at an inn where he is murdered for the money which she is hiding in her baby's shawls. Maternal love and a little brandy help her to feign ignorance and reach Brussels in safety, surviving a test by one of her hosts disguised as a peasant woman who walks with her. This fits into the 'horror at a murderous inn' genre, with variations. (PB)

An English Earl's clock tells of his hundred years: of brides and coffins; of a ghost tale one Christmas Eve he contributed to; of a diamond ring lost in his case; of flirtations, servants' treatment, etc. (PB)

A trooper in a township is entangled in an unhappy marriage between the miserly old storekeeper in search of a mother for his bastard uncontrollable five year-old son, and a termagent spinster in want of his money and escape from her bullied father. The storekeeper resolves to leave her but the discovery of his murdered and dismembered son, and his poisoning leads the trooper to arrest the wife who has attempted to poison her father too - and suicides in gaol. Violence and horror. (PB)

Tale of an old maid rescued from lonely isolation when her prize turkey is lost in the swamp and rescued by seven boys. She relents on her hard-heartedness and has them to a splendid Christmas lunch ... (PB)

Some humble country daisies are at last taken to the city markets to be sold - to a poor paper boy for his invalid sister. She eventually paints them and thus finds her way to an independent living. Family life and sibling love.(PB)

A spinster in her forties receives a valentine - curiosity finally breaking through her cynicism to ask the postmaster who sent it. He confesses - and happiness follows. (PB)